The Missing Link
by Joyce3
Summary: She never knew it was possible to miss someone that much...SW.


Title: The Missing Link

Author: Joyce

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of CSI.

Note: This takes place at the beginning of season seven. It's a one chapter story and it involves Sara/Warrick. I wrote this to take a break from New Beginnings but I will post a new chapter of that story soon. I hope you guys enjoy this one and please let me know what you think.

The Missing Link 

It was fate that brought her to him, Sara mused. She had been sent to Los Angeles to investigate a serial killer who had started killing in Vegas but fled to LA. Sara had flown in to help the LAPD catch the killer since she had been the prime forensic investigator working on the case back in Vegas. It had been a relieve for her to leave town for a while, even if it was just for a week. She had been aging for a break, not from her work but from Grissom. The man she had finally caught after years of chasing him.

They had been happy, for a short while it seemed like the world finally agreed with Sara. Her job was going fine, her past was no longer as painful as it just to be and she had the man she had loved since she was nineteen. And then he dropped a bomb on her, told her that they were wrong together, that she made him lose sight of his job. He told her that he did love her but he had no clue what to do with those feelings. Grissom had never learned to love anybody and he wasn't willing to try now because it was distracting him from something that he loved even more, collecting evidence. Sara had fought for him, she had wanted to show him that you could love someone and do your job at the same time but it was no use, he had made up his mind and there was nothing that she could do about it.

Now, two months after the breakup, Sara had accepted that she and Grissom would never be, she was still mad about it but she was learning to deal with it and a week without him was doing wonders for her acceptance. She was feeling better without him then she would have expected and now she was beginning to believe that she could handle a life without Grissom in it.

She had just left the police station, after finally catching the killer and Sara allowed herself to smile a little. She had one day left in LA and intended to play tourist for a little while, her plane was leaving that same night but she still had a whole day ahead of her and she wanted to make the most of it. She walked along in the streets of LA, trying to figure out where she would go and what she wanted to see when she suddenly had the need to look inside a coffee shop she was passing and then she saw him.

He was reading the paper, a cup of coffee in front of him and his fingers tapping in the beat of the mp3-player he was listening to. For a while she just stood there and watched him, relieved and mad at the same time. He seemed ok though. Thank God, he seemed to be ok. She stepped into the shop and approached his table, still a little hesitant, almost afraid that he wasn't really there but then he looked up and she let out a sigh of relief. Those eyes could only belong to Warrick Brown. Meanwhile, Warrick was looking at her in shock and she saw a flash of guilt in his eyes.

"You look well," she told him while he removed the mp3-player from his ears and he just nodded, not really knowing what to say.

"Not dead and all," Sara continued, a hint of anger in her voice and he flinched. "Do you know how long we searched for you?" she asked him and he spoke then. "I'm sorry," he said to her and she shook her head.

"You're sorry?" she asked him, "Is that all you can say? You disappear from the face of the earth after divorcing your wife, you don't call or write and you say that you're sorry?"

"I needed to get away," Warrick explained, his eyes pleading with her to understand and for a little while Sara did understand. She knew very well what it felt like when you're dreams exploded in your face and all you wanted to do was hide from the world. But then she remembered the fear, the fear that they all had been feeling, a feeling that hadn't gone away for the last three months and her anger returned.

"We thought you were dead," she whispered, sitting down at his table and forcing him to look at her. "Nick is still searching, do you know that? He says that he has given up but I see him looking every time we drive to a crime scene. I see him scanning every face in the street, hoping that he'll see yours."

"I should have called him," Warrick sighed and she nodded. "Yeah," she agreed, "You should have called him or wrote him a postcard or whatever. You could have let us know you were ok. You owed us that much."

He smiled a little after hearing her words. "I never thought I would be missed that much," he confessed, before he continued. "I guess I didn't think at all, I just..."

"You wanted to leave Las Vegas for a while, forget about the fact that you didn't find the love of your life like you had thought," Sara continued for him and he just nodded, a look of interest in his eyes.

"You seem to know the feeling," he observed and she shrugged. "I do," she told him, "I know the feeling very well."

"Grissom?" he asked her and Sara just looked down at the table in front of her. "Did he finally come to his senses?" she heard him say and she looked up when she heard the genuine concern in his voice. "For a little while," she commented dryly and Warrick grabbed her hand. "I'm sorry, Sara."

She shook her head. "Don't be, I'll be fine. You want to know what the hardest part was?"

She saw that he already knew but he pretended not to know, shrugging and giving her a chance to let it all out.

"I was hurting, Warrick," she began, "And I just wanted my best friend to comfort me but you were gone. I didn't even know what had happened to you..." She paused, a hint of tears in her eyes. "You know, for a while I actually hoped that you were dead."

Warrick widened his eyes in surprise, "What?" he asked her, "Why would you hope for a thing like that?"

"It hurt more to think that you had purposely left us," Sara said, "Left _me_."

He closed his eyes in defeat and grabbed her hand again, squeezing it, and this time Sara let him. Standing up she walked over to him and hugged him, not caring that the other customers could see them. "I was so scared," he heard her whisper and Warrick responded by wrapping his arms around her and just holding her. "I'm sorry," he kept saying to her, repeating it like a mantra. They were interrupted by a new voice entering their world.

"Sir," the waitress said, "We kinda have a policy here that our customers occupy one seat per person, not one seat per two persons."

Warrick smiled at the woman a bit sheepishly while Sara got up and grinned a little.

"Maybe it's time to go?" he asked his former colleague and she just nodded.

"That is a very good idea, sir," the waitress agreed with him and Warrick narrowed his eyes at the woman and paid his bill before he stepped out on the street where Sara was already waiting for him.

"What have you been doing here?" she asked him and he pointed to a club on the other side of the street.

"I play the piano in that club,"he said, "It's fun, different."

"You play the piano? In public?" Sara asked, a bit surprised and he just nodded, lost in thought. "How long are you here?" he asked her.

"I leave tonight," she answered, asking him a question of her own. "How long will you stay here?"

He responded his taking her hand an leading her across the street, taking her to an appartment in the back of the club he was working in.

"A friend of mine owns this club and used to live here before he moved to a bigger place. I'm staying here for the time being," he told while he avoided her question.

"That's great, Warrick," Sara said a bit exasperated. "But how long will that last? Are you planning to stay here forever?"

"I'm afraid to go back," he whispered, his back to her and she frowned in confusion. "Why? Because of Tina?"

"No," he immediately replied, "I just...I hurt you guys so much, how can I face you guys now? After what I did to you all?"

"You faced me," Sara told him with a smile on her face. "And I was the angriest one of the bunch, you're still alive though."

"Yeah, but you love me," Warrick said with a hint of his old flirty demeanor and she laughed at that. "I do love you," she told her friend. "So, can you please come home with me? We need you."

"Do I even have a job to go back to?" he asked her and she nodded. "Grissom was convinced that you were not dead and would come back. He has faith in you, you know."

"I never got that," Warrick mused and Sara stepped forward and wrapped her arms around her friend. "I get that," she admitted. "I have faith in you too but I'm still pissed though. Come home with me so I can kick your ass, please?"

"A little ass kicking has never hurt anyone," Warrick told her dryly and he pulled her to him even closer. "I missed you," he admitted and Sara smiled and closed her eyes, feeling happy for the first time in two months.

"I missed you too," she responded. "My plane leaves at eight, you want me to book another ticket?"

"Book it," Warrick said with a sigh and Sara stepped away from him and extended her hand out to him. "Let's go then."

She saw brief hesitation in his eyes and then he grabbed her hand.

"Maybe we should pack up my things first?" he suggested with a teasing grin on his face.

"Packing is good," she agreed and he smiled at her. Sitting down Sara watched him pack up his belongings and it suddenly hit her how much she had missed him over the last couple of months. It suddenly hit her that the loneliness was gone now, she was feeling complete again.

"Ready?" Warrick asked her once he was done packing and she nodded.

"I'm ready," she told him while grabbing his hand and taking him outside, wondering if it was possible to have more then one love of your life. Looking back at the man holding her hand she was beginning to think it was.

"I'm never letting you out of my sight again," she said with an serious expression on her face and Warrick laughed. "That sounds promising," he replied while letting her drag him home, where he belonged, with her.

The End.


End file.
